Yoda
and Kermit the Frog visit with Yoda and Mark Hamill on the set of The Empire Strikes Back.]] Yoda is a character from the Star Wars franchise, performed by Frank Oz. The character debuted as a puppet in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back, with Oz as voice and lead puppeteer and Kathryn Mullen assisting. Starting with the 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the character has been realized using computer animation, based on Oz's pre-recorded tracks. __TOC__ A popular misconception is that Yoda is a Muppet, based on the involvement of Oz, the character's existence as a puppet, vocal similarity to Oz' portrayal of the Muppet Grover, and a false assumption that The Jim Henson Company (or even Jim Henson himself) built the character. However, had he been built by Henson, the more realistic Yoda would technically qualify as a creature rather than a Muppet. The Yoda puppet was originally designed and built by Stuart Freeborn for LucasFilm and Industrial Light & Magic. Henson merely consulted on the building of Yoda. The creation of Yoda arose entirely independent of Henson, the only real connections being the loan of Oz and one or two other designers/assistants, and a slightly similar technology. Oz explained the character's creation in detail, during a 2000 interview with IGN FilmForce:IGN interview Warwick Davis stood in as a double for the character in scenes where Yoda was walking in The Phantom Menace. Image:Frankoz-yoda.jpg|Oz with Yoda Image:Yodafrank.JPG|Frank Oz performing Yoda with assistants Kathy Mullen and Wendy Froud Image:Oz yoda.jpg|Frank Oz performing Yoda References .]] * Baby Animal appears as Yoda in the Muppet Babies episode "Muppet Babies: The Next Generation." * In a Movie Mania segment, various Muppets audition for the role of Yoda. * A Muppet spoof of Yoda briefly appears in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. * John Crichton refers to Yoda in the "I, E.T." episode of Farscape. He says the planet that the crew lands on reminds him of Dagobah, Yoda's home planet in The Empire Strikes Back. * In the September 14, 2005 episode of From the Balcony, Bobo auditions for the part of Yoda in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. * When asked which classic cinema character he'd like to play in an interview hosted on Amazon.com, Kermit answers that he's suited to play Yoda since he's already small and green. * Rizzo the Rat appears as Yoda in the Star Wars Muppets PVC figures set. * In a November 2011 appearance on George Stroumboulopoulos, Kermit says he regrets not getting the role of Yoda. "I didn't have the ears for it." Image:Yoda.animal.jpg|Baby Animal as Yoda Image:MovieMania-yoda.jpg|Fozzie Bear, a character originally performed Frank Oz, auditions for the role of Yoda Image:Yoda-animal.jpg|Animal, another character originated by Oz, tries out for the part Image:Yoda-bobo.jpg|Bobo Image:Yoda-kermit.jpg|Kermit takes issue with the written dialogue Image:Yoda-pepe.jpg|Pepe holds the Yoda ears, as they are too large for his head Muppet Mentions .]] * Beginning in 2002 with Attack of the Clones, Yoda became a CGI character, the concepts of which Oz was consulted on. The documentary, From Puppets to Pixels features behind-the-scenes footage of George Lucas providing direction to his team of animators regarding how Yoda should move in a fight scene. Having already referred to Yoda as frog-like, Lucas remarks that Yoda is "actually the illegitimate child of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy." * In the Empire of Dreams documentary, George Lucas had this to say about the creation of the Yoda puppet: "That was like, a real leap. Because if that puppet had not worked, the whole film would have been down the tubes. It just would have been a disaster if it had been this silly little Muppet... if it had been Kermit running around in that movie, the whole movie would have collapsed under the weight of it." * According to the 2010 book The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back by J.W. Rinzler, a filmed blooper exists of Miss Piggy interacting with Mark Hamill on the Dagobah set. "When Mark Hamill first met Frank Oz, he asked him to do a brief Miss Piggy cameo during rehearsals on set, as a practical joke — but when the time came much later, it caught even Hamill off-guard. During one scene, Yoda tells Luke to follow his feelings. Luke protests that he has followed his feelings — and suddenly, Frank Oz whips out a Miss Piggy puppet, saying, “Feelings? You want feelings? Get behind the couch and I’ll show you feelings, punk. What is this hole? I’ve been booked into dumps before, but never like this. Get me my agent on the phone!”"[http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/10/10-things-empire-strikes-back Wired review of Rinzler's book] Sources External Links *FilmForce Interview with Frank Oz *Yoda on Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki Category:Movie References Category:Rumors